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You would think that playing with a metronome and playing on the beat wouldn't be too difficult, but I think I've gotten into a habit that I'm struggling to break out of.

I tend to play just slightly ahead of the beat. In actuality, I probably play on the beat 25% and slightly ahead of the beat 75% of the time.

Any ideas for how to correct this? Ultimately, I want to have enough control to be able to play on, ahead, and behind the beat on command.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I've been practicing this a lot and haven't seen any improvement.

I don't have an answer for you, but I certainly can commisserate! I have exactly the same problem. I'm always running ahead of the metronome - especially when playing a Blues piece where the left hand repeats patterns.

First idea: slow down. I always found that, when I was entering early, I was usually afraid of entering late, and so I'd "jump" the beat. If you let go of time, and relax with it, you'll start to hear it better.

Other thing - practice with music that has an actual, distinctive, clear note on the beat. Nothing matters except hitting the beat. When you can do it, move on to something more complex.

Third thing - if nothing seems to work, it could be technique.. ie- you may not have sufficient "flexibility" in your technical facilities to slow down/speed up as microscopically needed to stay in time. Without fully breaking down and analyzing your technique, you can sometimes practice fixing this by taking a piece you know very well and playing along to someone else playing it. Youtube recordings are great for this. Change the performer constantly, so you really have to change what it is you're doing at the keys. Eventually, you'll start to feel the rhythm of that performer, and you'll find their beat. And once you can find an arbitrary performer's beat, you can keep up with any metronome.

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I think the tendency is to be ahead of the beat instead of behind it for most people. What tempo are you attempting? Are you strong at any tempo?

Try this. Start at about 100 bpm (or wherever you feel strongest). Try to play just one note exactly on the beat. As you are successful, slow down the metronome by 5-10 bpm. When it gets too slow to accurately play on the beat, play 2 notes per click. Keep going slower. Then increase to 4 clicks per beat. The goal here is to stop counting and feel when the beat is coming. Subdividing each beat into 2 or 4 can sometimes help that.

Overall, if you want to work on your timing, try to master SLOW tempos.

Can you tap your foot in time to the metronome? Usually, this is pretty easy if you are used to tapping your foot to the music you listen to. Next tap your foot while you play. It is pretty hard to play piano at a different beat than that of the tapping foot. Finally, train yourself to play without tapping your foot (if you have a teacher like mine who frowns of foot tapping.)